Help! New to this! Book now or wait trip Jan 2016

[Mmw37]

Hello all, and TIA!
My family will be flying down for a 5 night stay first week in January. We've been once, but we were FL residents and went last minute with minimal planning for a couple of days. Now we have two kids and live in IN, so it's more work and more money. I know from Mousesavers that there will probably be a discount available for our trip, and historically it's released in October. Should I wait to book everything, or start now? Where we will stay will be dependent on what that discount is - we did All Star last time, but can afford a little better now if there's a decent price drop. Is it a huge hassle to change hotels if a discount comes out? Thank you!

 

[pstepka]

Commenting because I, too, would like to know the answer

 

[marinejjh]

I would go ahead and book, they may not have the rooms available when the discounts come out in october. You can book now and then call when the discounts come out and have them change your pricing. Also if your doing the dining plan it will be slim pickings if you wait. We booked at the 180 day mark and some of the restaurants are already booked for the last week of january.

 

[mickeynut1]

Hello all, and TIA!
My family will be flying down for a 5 night stay first week in January. We've been once, but we were FL residents and went last minute with minimal planning for a couple of days. Now we have two kids and live in IN, so it's more work and more money. I know from Mousesavers that there will probably be a discount available for our trip, and historically it's released in October. Should I wait to book everything, or start now? Where we will stay will be dependent on what that discount is - we did All Star last time, but can afford a little better now if there's a decent price drop. Is it a huge hassle to change hotels if a discount comes out? Thank you!

If you will go regardless of whether or not a discount comes out, I'd book now to make sure you get what you want. If you will go only with a discount, I'd wait to see what (if any) discounts are released for that time frame. Since Disney releases discounts to fill rooms, not all resorts/room types are always offered with a promo and booking now in hopes of a discount will be one less room Disney needs to fill. Sometimes you have to be flexible with your resort and/or room type as having a reservation already in place does not guarantee a discount can be applied. If you book now and change resorts later, it's a simple process as long as you don't change reservation types. If you change from RO to a package (or vice versa), the first reservation will have to be cancelled/refunded and a new one booked. Since RO and packages are different reservation systems, money paid toward one cannot be applied to the other.

 

[Mmw37]

Okay, more info. We're definitely going, and our dates are set (1/3-1/8 for the Disney portion of our trip). Vacation has been requested and approved. We know which parks we're going to on which days. We aren't picky about where we stay - we had a great time a year and a half ago at All Star Sports, and some value themes would really appeal to our oldest - but for 5 nights a nicer room might be really appreciated by mom and dad. I know how much we want to spend, so I think I'd like the nicest room we can afford. Do I gain anything by booking at a value (or maybe moderate?) and switching later, or if we aren't super particular would we be better served waiting? Thanks! Hope this doesn't post 12 times, site is being weird on my phone.

 

[marinejjh]

Okay, more info. We're definitely going, and our dates are set (1/3-1/8 for the Disney portion of our trip). Vacation has been requested and approved. We know which parks we're going to on which days. We aren't picky about where we stay - we had a great time a year and a half ago at All Star Sports, and some value themes would really appeal to our oldest - but for 5 nights a nicer room might be really appreciated by mom and dad. I know how much we want to spend, so I think I'd like the nicest room we can afford. Do I gain anything by booking at a value (or maybe moderate?) and switching later, or if we aren't super particular would we be better served waiting? Thanks! Hope this doesn't post 12 times, site is being weird on my phone.

I would book it now, you can change rooms or resorts to fit your need later when the discounts come out. This will allow you to make dining reservations now instead of later. If you wait you selections will be very limited.